(Update: Someone better make sure Gates doesn’t see this latest installment of “Get a Mac” (a.k.a. “Mac vs. PC) about Vista security. He’ll got ballistic.)
Just the other day I was acknowledging to myself, “Self, let’s lighten up about Apple’s ‘Mac vs. PC’ advertising campaign.” Seems the spots had finally won me over, a stark departure from this post of last summer. Not that I’m about to buy a Mac, mind you, it’s just that I’m finally prepared to roll with humor of it all.
Seems Bill Gates isn’t quite so ready.
Asked by Newsweek if he’s “bugged” by the ad series installment where John Hodgman (the dorky PC character) is facing major “surgery” because he’s being upgraded to Vista, Gates got his dander up.
“I’ve never seen it,” Gates tells Newsweek.
Hmmm. … He continues:
“I don’t think the over 90 percent of the [population] who use Windows PCs think of themselves as dullards, or the kind of klutzes that somebody is trying to say they are.”
This was pretty much my position back in June … and that part hasn’t changed with my recent conversion. I’ve just stopped taking it so personally.
But Gates was just getting warmed up.
“Well, certainly we’ve done a better job letting you upgrade on the hardware than our competitors have done. You can choose to buy a new machine, or you can choose to do an upgrade. And I don’t know why [Apple is] acting like it’s superior. I don’t even get it. What are they trying to say? Does honesty matter in these things, or if you’re really cool, that means you get to be a lying person whenever you feel like it? There’s not even the slightest shred of truth to it.”
When you’re the world’s richest man running the world’s biggest software company you can pretty much answer any question any way you please (with the possible exception of when you’re under oath). However, here’s what I would have suggested for an answer had Gates asked for my opinion:
“Those TV ads? Sure, I’ve seem ’em. Funny stuff. A little light in the truthiness department, but funny. Let’s move on to more substantive topics.”
Of course, I don’t have a gazillion dollars riding on Vista.
(Update: I’m not the only one suggesting that Bill lighten up:
Gates on Apple: The Empire Strikes Back
Bill Gates loses his grip on reality. New ‘Get a Mac’ Ad Mocks Vista’s UAC, Infuriates Bill Gates.
Mac TV ads: Gates loses cool.)
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